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Erdogan to make state visit to Germany in September

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay his first state visit to Germany since becoming president in 2014 on 28-29 September, the office of Germany's president Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed on Tuesday. The programme includes a meeting between Erdogan and Steinmeier while a meeting with chancellor Angela Merkel was not confirmed. Relations between the two Nato countries are strained due to Turkey's crackdown on suspected opponents and detention of German citizens.

This is a political crisis unprecedented in Austria since the war: the resignation of the vice-chancellor, firing of the interior minister, the mass resignation of FPO ministers, a snap election, and a no-confidence vote in the Austrian parliament on Monday.

Feature

A planned high-speed railway connection through the Alps between Italy and France has been highly controversial for decades and is pitting governing Italian coalition parties against each other. But the European Commission insists it must go ahead.